Various forms of simple WCAG intro Re: Action Item

When I used to work for RMIT I made a "quick tips" type thing about every
month. (seven virtues and seven sins was my favourite title, but i would get
down to a top 3 things, and a number of other approaches too).

This is something that I think a lot of people do. I wonderif itis really in
our bailiwick. Maybe we should farm them out to EO and we should be checking
over them for things that are actually "wrong".

Chaals

On Wed, 7 Mar 2001, William Loughborough wrote:

  Last year I took a self-assigned "action item" to attempt to put the list
  of checkpoints into a form (table) that might be both less imposing and
  easier to use for people who wanted a handy-dandy "Checkpoint Checker".

  I took the various WCAG 1.0 checkpoints and classified them in a table.
  Along with links to the guidelines, checkpoints, techniques, and selected
  tools/references it became
  http://rdf.pair.com/xpos.html
  http://rdf.pair.com/plain.htm for folks put off by styling elaborations

  It was well-received and even translated into Spanish at
  http://www.sidar.org/traduc/checker.htm

  One of the main thrusts of GL's effort is to attend to the expected barrage
  of complaints about the opacity of the upcoming 2.0 document.

  A little history: a few years ago Harvey Bingham almost off-handedly
  remarked that he had been part of a successful attempt to put an entire
  computer language's essentials on a business card and it was proposed that
  something similar be done by EO to make the guidelines communicable in such
  a medium. Result: the QuickTips card which has been reprinted often enough
  to have over 200,000 copies given out!

  Although such a card will likely ensue the publication of WCAG 2.0 it seems
  that the effort to make the guidelines more, well "accessible" (in the
  sense of non-offputting) for lay readers is in the GL WG bailiwick since if
  we're writing the document we should ensure its ready readability.

  In addition to the card I think it imperative that there be a screen that
  summarizes what the new document is like/about. Instead of the more formal
  language of the guidelines/checkpoints this screen would use single words
  in a table that characterize the idea of each guideline. As a start I have
  chosen "Transportable", "Controllable", Comprehensible", "Compatible" which
  more or less depict the intents of the four guidelines. The bulleted list
  accompanying each of these "principles" is not intended to be a restatement
  of each guideline but just elucidations of the principles in the same vein:
  terse suggestions of what the principle suggests.

  What I hope we can do in parallel with devising the checkpoints is to
  improve this screen and make it something about which it can be something
  "we" do rather than what "I" do.

  The initial version is at http://rdf.pair.com/xguide.htm and only the first
  icon has what I propose to be a multimedia link, in this case to a .wav
  file (takes a while to load, but most browsers will cache and play it more
  quickly after the first time it is "clicked here"). It would be nice to
  have something linked from each icon so that we can "live the life we sing
  about in our song."

  So as a first query: how 'bout them "principles" - the chosen "-ble" words
  that is? I used single words and think that only "transportable" is at all
  "techie" - but should still be pretty clear if we write good bullets
  beneath it? I deliberated on using "interoperable" but settled on the more
  everyday "compatible". "Controllable" and "Comprehensible" are familiar and
  probably pretty clear?

  --
  Love.
                   ACCESSIBILITY IS RIGHT - NOT PRIVILEGE


-- 
Charles McCathieNevile    http://www.w3.org/People/Charles  phone: +61 409 134 136
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative     http://www.w3.org/WAI    fax: +1 617 258 5999
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Received on Wednesday, 7 March 2001 12:25:12 UTC